Party like it’s 1966….

Can I just say that I’m glad this past weekend is over now?  There was plenty going on so it’s nice to be back home and able to just sit back and relax.

I left to go back home on Thursday early afternoon.  I planned on getting on the road earlier than I really did, but due to a torrential downpour as I was attempting to load the van I got delayed.  Finally got everything loaded, threw the kiddos in the car and headed out to pick up the cake.  Once I picked up the cake I hit the road heading back home.  I took a different route than normal because that way would take me past the place where I needed to drop off the food before heading to my Mom’s party at work.  But when I got near the place I needed to drop off the stuff I was running so far behind that I couldn’t stop.  🙁  So I just flew on by and went directly to my Mom’s party instead.  I thought I was like super late because she told me the party was at 3:30.  But when I got there the sign on the door said it started at 3:45 and I got there just a few minutes before 4.  Not much had gone on yet so I really hadn’t missed anything.  It wasn’t a long party, but since she really didn’t want a party anyway it was nice.  And they had laminated her original application for employment and presented it to her at the party too.  That was pretty cool to see what a job application looked like back in 1966 when she was hired.  lol

The one owner who had actually hired her had stopped through earlier in the day to see her off.  He said he saw her on the first day and he wanted to be able to see her on her last.  He couldn’t stay for the party because his wife was in the hospital and they didn’t expect her to last very much longer.  The owner of the company now is in FL for the winter so he emailed a statement up that he wanted them to read at the party, so they laminated it and read it and then gave it to my Mom. And then the owners son, who is there quite often, got up and gave a speech.  And lastly they brought out some gifts for her.  They gave her a mantle clock with her name and years of service on it, a wooden cutting board with the company name engraved into it, and a $300+ gift package to Fanny Hill (a fancy dinner theatre/Victorian Inn back home) for a weekend stay, dinner theatre, etc.  She got that same gift for her 40th anniversary with the company. So it was kind of silly they gave her the same exact thing this time around but whatever.  A couple of her friends there gave her some gift cards to a couple of different places.  And her union gave her a American Express gift card loaded with $300 on it for her to use anyway she pleased.  I think she enjoyed it, even though she didn’t want them to throw a party.

Friday was her last official day.  We thought she might get done early but she didn’t, they had her work right up until the very last minute.  While she was at work her idiotic friend and I ran all over town getting ready for the party the next day.  I thought everything would have been done by the time I got there but I guess I should have known better.

He got there just before 11 and suddenly was in a super big hurry to get going.  That ticked me off so I took my sweet time getting ready.  After all, ti wasn’t MY fault he hadn’t done a dang thing all week so why should I hurry to get going because he wanted to?  We finally left.  Stopped at Shopko to pick up pop because he claimed it was the ‘best deal in town’, turned out he was wrong like usual.  But he loaded a cart up anyway, only to get to the checkouts and change his mind abandoning the cart right there and walking out.  I have never been so embarrassed in my life.  So we took off to try and figure out where he wanted to go next.  He thought I should cart his butt all over town looking at every store to find out who had the best deal on things, then going back to whereever that may be to get stuff.  I told him I wouldn’t run to a dozen different stores just to "look" and go back to one of them later.  So we ended up just going to Festival Foods and getting what he wanted.

That shopping experience was the most painful thing I’ve ever endured. I swear, I could not take having to deal with him on a daily basis.  He would simply not survive it if he was around me all the time.  Ugggh.  We walked in the store and the first thing he wants to do is hit the liquor dept becuase he hadn’t bought any of the beer or anything yet.  The only alcohol he had he stole from my Mom’s place but I won’t even get started on how I felt about that.  Grrr.  He had invited someone my Mom despises with a passion and who she just had words with a week before about some stupid crap he said to her.  and that particular person only drinks brandy and caffeine free Pepsi for a drink.  So he went immediately and grabbed the biggest bottle of brandy he could find.  I told him I thought he was an idiot for spending special money on just one person but it fell on deaf ears for sure.  Then he continued like a kid in a candy store grabbing cases of beer here and there.  All of it being weird crap and not the normal stuff people generally drink.  Come to find out he bought what he liked, what another person he had invited liked, etc.  Each case was for ONE specific person he had invited but didn’t know for sure they would even come.  But whatever. 

We finallly get down to the food shopping portion of it and that was a whole different experience.  Every single thing he needed to buy he complained about.  "It’s so expensive" blah, blah, blah.  Yeah, well get over it!  And he was supposedly throwing this party for my Mom, but if you had listened to him during that shopping trip you wouldn’t have known that.  Everything was for someone else and what somoene else liked.  At one point I simply had had enough and blew my top.  I told him if he wasn’t going to buy what he was supposed to and quit his bitching about everything and buying it for everyone else BUT for my Mom adn what she liked then we were simply done and going to leave.  So he pouted and finally just shut up a bit.  I was so freakin’ mad at that point.  He didn’t want to spend money to get bakery buns because it would "cost to much" and he was already spending way more than he wanted to.  Too bad!  We finally got the stuff we needed and he suddenly decides that he needs to get some type of salads.  Again, I whirled aroudn on him and blew.  He had told me that he was having them made by someone and that was all taken care of.  So no one else bothered with it because he kept telling us it was taken care of.  Come to find out he decided not even talk to the person about getting it made and never said anything until Friday while we were shopping.  So we went and picked out this really yummy salad from the deli that I liked, my son liked and I knew my Mom would like.  We got that and I loaded it in the cart and started to walk away and I hear him telling the deli clerk he wanted something else.  So I went back and he was getting this nasty macaroni salad that looked all dried out and gross.  Apparen

tly it’s HIS favorite and he wasn’t about to just get something that my Mom and other people would like.  He ended up telling that poor clerk "keep packing it in there" like 3 different times before she simply just stopped and called it done.  In the end he got over 8 lbs of that crappy salad and still wasnt’ satisfied that she hadn’t just stuffed it to the very top.  Pig.  And like I figured, people really didn’t liek that salad all that much at the party.  You should have seen his eyes bug when he got to the checkout.  He surveyed the cart, which was heaped both top and bottom, and said "Oh, this is going to be expensive.  I bet it’ll cost me a $100.  That’s more than I wanted to spend".  I had to bite my tongue, seriously.  When the total came up as $230 I thought he would crap a brick.  lol  Serves him right.  All of the things he said he had or was getting he didn’t do anything about.  Like he said he had plates, cups, and silverware.  When really, he had nothing.  His plan was to swipe some from another person’s place that he knew, but they were out.  So he had to buy all of that stuff.  And then there was the salad.  I couldn’t help but laugh to myself.  After all, the other two of us who were in on this party had spent quite alot of money already.  Served him right.

So we finally left the grocery store and ended up heading to the floral shop.  He was supposed to get flowers for her.  He thought the other guy that was helping out with the party was going to pay for them.  So he called before we got there and found out that was not eh case and he wasnt’ pleased.  We got there and they didn’t have a flowering plant like he wanted to get.  So he started bitching to me about the fact that I "had to go and ruin everything by buying her the best flower already".  Becuase my son picked out a beautiful pink flowering plant for her that was intended forth eparty but when I couldn’t drop it off ahead of time, we gave it to her Thursday night instead.  So he was bitching about that.  Finally decided on a small little bowl of cut flowers that had 3 candles in it as what he was going to get.  It most certainly was not the prettiest thing I had ever seen.  My son picked out one that was by far prettier but he refused to get it because it was "to expensive".   Again, grrrr with the bitching about the cost. 

FINALLY we were able to head towards where the party was going to be to unload the stuff we bought and get it set up.  On the way we stopped and grabbed lunch.  That was the only meal he paid for the entire time we were up there, the rest of the meals either my husband or I paid for. 

Get down to the place where the party will be and unload everything.  T/he other guy that was helping with all of this lives there so he came and helped us out once we got there.  He was astonished at home much had been bought.  All he kept saying was "I think you went overboard", which is what I thought to.  We had a fridge that had nothing but beer and pop in it and it was stuffed to the max.  D’s brother was supposed to have delivered the tables and chairs Thursday, but they weren’t there on Friday when we got there.  So we couldn’t set them up.  And he wouldn’t call to find out if he in fact was going to bring them or not, he just assumed he would and left it at that.  Idiot.  So with nothing much left that we could do we headed back to my Mom’s house and got there around 2 or so.  We weren’t sure when she might be getting done so we didn’t want to be gone when she got home if we could help it.  So we sat around and watched movies with the kids for the rest of the day waiting for my Mom to get home.  What a waste of a day since Mom didn’t get home until after 5.

My DH called around 6 and said he was heading out to my Mom’s and would be there by 7:30 or so.  So we waited for him to get there before we went out for dinner.  We had decided to to take her to Red Lobster.  Mom really enjoyed that.  But when it came time for the bill D sat on his hands and acted stupid until DH finally picked up the bill and paid for it.  He never even lifted a finger or offered to pay a penny for it, but he wanted to take credit for having gone there, which just didn’t fly since Mom told me the night before she wanted to go and I drove.  lol

Saturday we went out for lunch.  Came back home becuase I had told the other guy who was helping us to give my Mom a call around noon to invite her to his place for happy hour and whatever.  So when we got home he had called and left a message, so Mom called him back.  He said he wnated her to come to his place for happy hour and he was making homemade spagetti and meatballs for supper.  So she was all excited about that and agreed to go.  It was THE easiest way I could have ever hoped for it get her down there! 

When we got the place where the party was it was between 4:30-5:00.  The party was supposed to start at 5.  We pulled in and there werw already a bunch of cars parked there.  My Mom saw them and said something.  But we said it must have been for someone else who lives in the house there so she just let it go.  We went down for happy hour and to visit with E for a bit.  Meanwhile D went out to the shop where the party was set up.  All this time he was afraid that someone was going to blow it, and was blaming my son for almost blowing it.  And who do you think ended up blowing it?  you bet, he did!  He came back in with a beer in his hand and a stupid grin on his face, my Mom got suspicious right away, especially when he lied about where he got the beer.  He said he got it from a guy who lives upstairs, but he hates taht guy and never would go there and besides that he wasn’t even home when we got there.  Then he went and carried out the deviled eggs I had made and my son hollered out "he’s taking the eggs out!" so I went to shut him up and I turend around and my Mom was right there.  lol  She came after me going "you little shit" and literally chased me around and around in a circle!  lol  It was pretty funny.  So we finally went out to the shop and into the party.

The party turned out ok.  From what I could count we had at least 50 people show up.  The majority of them D’s family and friends, but whatever.  A few of our close family friends showed up which was really nice.  My Mom’s bosses from her 2nd job showed up and spent a bunch of time there so that was nice.  The party was only slated to go from 5-9 but the last people didn’t leave out of there until almost midnight!    My Mom got alot of nice gifts and a bunch of money.  So that was nice, and a big surprise to her.  The food was good, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  The only thing my Mom was upset about was that her idiotic friend hadn’t invited a single person from our side of the family.  He only wanted to invite one person from my family and I told him he couldn’t invite just one, he would have to invite them all.&nbsp

; He decided that was to much apparently because he didn’t invite anyone.  Idiot.  The other thing that ticked my Mom, DH and I all off was that D tried to take credit for the WHOLE party.  He was overheard by Mom, me, and the other guy who helped with all of the food telling his family he did it all.  No mention of anyone else, so they thought he had done a fantastic job.  Grrrrr.  When Mom called him out on it later he got that deer in the headlights look, turned beet red and tried to lie and wiggle his way out of it.  When DH and I backed her up on it he got really ticked off, tried to deny it all that much more and finally stomped off in a hissy fit and went off to pout.  Oh well.  The other guy who helped put this all togehter is 75 years old.  He worked like a dog for an entire week cleaningo ut the shop where he had the actual party, cooking and you name it.  He did a fantastic job with what he did.  I took care of the rest of the food, the cake and anything else that had to be done.  And then D thought he could just brag about what he did and get all the credit for it.  E was a ticked when he heard that and I don’t blame him, so was I.  And the fact that D tried to lie about not having said it when at least 4 people heard him say it repeatedly made it even worse.  And D’s sisters all cornered me and asked if he really did it and how if he did that my Mom should "go easy on him" becuase he did such a good thing.  I told them he did basically nothing that E, I and my Dh did all fo the work.  I figured they should know the truth, ya know?

Sunday we had a meeting to go to for an organization we belong to.  So that was a good way to get rid of some fo the leftover food fromt he night before.   Then we just hung out at Mom’s and enjoyed what was left of our time there before Dh and I headed back home Sunday night.  DH left earlier than I did since we had both cars up there.  I didn’t get home until about 1:30 Sunday night.  When I left my Mom thanked me for everything and said she apprecited it.  I told her she deserved it and I’d do it all over again for her.

Despite some of the frustrations and moments of wanting to simply kill D I think my Mom had a decent time.  She seemed to actaully enjoy herself. and that was the point. 

Our gift to my Mom was whatever we did for the party.  But the one I think she enjoyed all the more is that we asked her if she would like to go to our ultrasound this time.  When she had me they didn’t do those very often so she never had one.  So I asked her if she would like to go to this one since it will be the last one and she was so over the top excited about that.  She was excited that she would be able to see her grandchild before it was even born.  It’s always exciting for me to see them for the first time, but I’m sure it will be even more so for her since she’s never seen one before and never experienced one.  So now she’s looking forward to that coming up.  And it sounds like she plans on visiting more often and for longer periods of time than she’s been able to do before.  Which we expected andit’s fine with us.  I talked with her bosses from her 2nd job at the party and they told me that she can take as much time off as she wants once the new baby comes so she can come down and help us out.  So that was very nice of them too.

Well, the stuff leading up to the party was a small diseaster and nightmare. But the party went off without a hitch, so that was a relief.  And boy, am I glad this weekend is over.  I’m back home and trying to recover from it!  It was alot of long, late nights!  It has yet to hit my Mom that she is actually retired.  I don’t think it will for a couple of weeks. Right now she says it just feels like she’s on vacation.  But in a couple of weeks she’ll finally realize where she’s at I think.  So will all those people she worked with who depended on her to do things for them.  But after 42 years it’s about time they depend on someone else.